Tuchman was the first full-time curator of modern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from 1964 to 1994 and mounted numerous groundbreaking and memorable exhibitions there, including the historic Art and Technology program.
“The Getty Research Institute has amassed an unparalleled collection of records and scholarly resources related to American post-war art, especially the previously understudied contemporary art scene of Los Angeles in the late 20th century,” said Thomas W. Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute. “Maurice Tuchman is a standout figure in the recent history of modern art in Los Angeles and beyond and his influence is unquestionably evident to this day. We are grateful to Mr. Tuchman for this extraordinary gift.”
The Maurice Tuchman papers document three decades of exhibitions and projects at LACMA and include correspondence, press clippings, photography, audiovisual recordings, publications, personal papers, and even his appointment books from the beginning of his tenure at LACMA until the 1980s. Among the publications in the archive are rare artist publications such as Ilya Kabakov’s Red Wagon and the 1970s New York artists’ magazine Avalanche. Artists such as Edward Kienholz, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, and R.B. Kitaj figure prominently in these materials.
“Looking at the scope of Tuchman’s career—his triumphs, his controversies, his experiments—is inspiring. Tuchman helped to define the reputation of LA’s preeminent art museum in the late 20th century and by extension LA’s international standing in the art world,” said John Tain, assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the GRI. “His work with artists, curators, dealers, collectors, and patrons connects with many research projects and other archives at the GRI. Access to this sweeping record of Tuchman’s curatorial practice will be a crucial resource for any researcher investigating post-war art, the history of museums in Southern California, and individual artists from Southern California.”
Tuchman received his master’s degree in art history from Columbia University, studying under Meyer Schapiro while counting artist Donald Judd, art critic Barbara Rose, and former MoMA director William Rubin as fellow students. He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1964, when he began his career at LACMA.
The many LACMA exhibitions Tuchman curated or co-curated include New York School: the First Generation (1965); Edward Kienholz (1966), American Sculpture of the Sixties (1967), The Avant-Garde in Russia, 1910–30: New Perspectives (1980), The Spiritual in Art (1986), and Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art (1992). He is most widely celebrated for his instigation of the Art and Technology program, which paired artists with technology companies in Southern California from 1966 to 1971 and the related exhibition (1971) and for the popular exhibition Art in Los Angeles: Seventeen Artists in the Sixties (1981).
Tuchman’s 30-year tenure at LACMA was occasionally marked by tumult, including charges of sexism in the 1980s regarding the artist selections for two of his exhibitions—Art and Technology and Art in Los Angeles. However, Tuchman’s legacy can be seen in the permanent collection that he helped establish, and also in the curators who he brought on, including Jane Livingston, Stephanie Barron, Howard Fox, and Carol Eliel. Tuchman has also written and edited dozens of exhibition catalogues, including the catalogue raisonné for Russian painter Chaïm Soutine
In 2014 LACMA created the Art + Technology Lab, inspired by Tuchman’s Art and Technology initiative. The new program supports artist experiments with emerging technology through grants, in-kind support, and facilities at the museum to develop prototypes.
“I am quite honored that my papers are joining those of esteemed colleagues such as Harald Szeemann, Barbara Rose, Lawrence Alloway, and Henry Hopkins, all of whom I have had the pleasure to work with,” said Tuchman. “It is fantastic that the Getty Research Institute is taking steps to ensure that future scholars will be able to access the legacy of the sixties and seventies.”
Once the archive is cataloged, it will be available to researchers through the Getty Research Library (GRI). Researchers at the GRI will find connections in his papers with the GRI holdings of Tuchman’s contemporaries, including Lawrence Alloway, Betty Asher, Henry Hopkins, Barbara Rose, as well as the archives of many artists and curators active in the era.